


Of Promises and Necklaces

by KrisseyCrystal (IceCreAMS)



Series: Of Bridges and Shores (Zestiria - AtlA AU) [2]
Category: Tales of Zestiria
Genre: Alternate Universe - Avatar & Benders Setting, Avatar Sorey, Bending (Avatar), Betrothal Necklace (Avatar), Bullying, M/M, Southern Water Tribe, Waterbender Mikleo, Young Mikleo and Sorey (Tales of Zestiria), Zenrus is really only in there for 2 seconds tho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:15:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23638156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IceCreAMS/pseuds/KrisseyCrystal
Summary: A little Sorey gifts a little Mikleo a very important necklace.It's unfortunate that the other kids of the Southern Water Tribe can be so mean.
Relationships: Mikleo/Sorey (Tales of Zestiria)
Series: Of Bridges and Shores (Zestiria - AtlA AU) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1407244
Comments: 15
Kudos: 60
Collections: Bad Things Happen Bingo





	Of Promises and Necklaces

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Oliver__Niko](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oliver__Niko/gifts).



The children of the Southern Water Tribe could be cruel.

They knew why Sorey and Zenrus’ tent sat outside of their small community’s snow walls. They never let Sorey forget as to why.

The name-calling and the snowballs only came whenever an adult wasn’t looking. 

There were days Sorey would run to Zenrus in horrible tears, gasping about the other children’s laughter and unkind words. Even with all of his age and wisdom, Zenrus could only sigh and say, “It is not you these hostilities are aimed at, Sorey.” He would wrap his arms around the small boy, pull him into his lap, and mutter, “They have been hurt by an entity bigger than yourself and bigger than themselves. And now, for the first time in a long time, they finally have a target they can focus these negative energies on. It is not you, my boy. It is what you represent.”

Sorey clung to those words like he would the lantern Zenrus wanted him to carry around during those horrible stretches of weeks when the sun would forget to shine. It was just a hope, an idea, but one he so desperately craved: the thought that perhaps he didn’t have to be hated and feared. 

Above all, Sorey longed so dearly not to be feared. 

* * *

A small smile worked its way onto Mikleo’s face as he watched Sorey set down his lantern beside his knee. The small flame within the cage of glass flickered, casting a soft orange glow to the thick ice around them. “You really do carry that thing around with you everywhere, huh?”

Sorey’s green eyes fluttered up to Mikleo’s violets. A bright flush dusted his cheeks, and Mikleo knew it wasn’t because of the snow. Sorey looked back down. His mitted hands dug around in his coat pockets. “I guess so.”

“Why?”

Sorey shrugged. He huffed a small cloud of air out in frustration and withdrew his hands out of the deep folds of his coat. He slipped off a glove and stuck the freed hand back in to keep searching. “Gramps said I should. It kind of helps me not feel so bad when the sky gets dark for a long time. Y’know?”

Mikleo tilted his chin up. “But the sun’s been out today.”

“Yeah.”

“So why are you carrying it around today?”

Sorey shrugged again. 

There was a brief pause before he answered, “Gramps said to keep carrying it around, I guess. I don’t really know why.”

Mikleo fought the small snicker that wanted to rise out of him. “Haven’t you asked him?”

“Well, yeah, but he says I’ll find out when I find out. Whatever that means,” Sorey mumbled under his breath. His face pinched tight, before he brightened with relief. “Ah-ha! There it is!”

“There what is?”

“What I dragged you out here for!” There was something radiant and hopeful in Sorey’s face as he pulled out a small blue ribbon from his pocket. At its center, dangling with every jerk of the brunet’s hand, swung a crudely-formed and round pendant with an unfamiliar pattern shakily carved onto its front. “Ta-da!” the eight-year-old boasted with a grin. “What do you think?”

Mikleo blinked. He rested his hands against his crossed calves and leaned forward to see the pendant better. “Is it a…necklace?”

Sorey nodded. His face turned sheepish and burned an even brighter red than before. “Y-yeah. But it’s also kinda more than that.” He lifted his other hand, still covered with a mitten, and cradled the necklace in his palm. “Do you remember what you were telling me Master Uno was saying the other day? About the Water Tribes to the north?”

“Yeah.” Mikleo’s eyes drew up from the necklace to his friend. “He was talking about the different traditions between our Tribes.”

“Yeah,” Sorey nodded back. He swallowed. It didn’t escape Mikleo’s notice the way his hands seemed to suddenly shake as he held the necklace. Was it because of the cold? He made a mental note to remind Sorey to put on his left hand glove again once he was done talking. “W-well, he said that when people up there want to marry each other, they make those, uh, beach oval necklaces, right?”

“Is that what he said?”

“Yeah. I think so,” Sorey’s face flushed terribly red again. He held the pendant to his chest tightly. “I kind of hope so,” he murmured, far quieter and under his breath--so soft that Mikleo almost didn’t hear the words.

“Sorey.” Nevertheless, Mikleo felt a wide smile slowly spread across his face. “Did you make me a beach oval necklace?”

“…m-maybe.”

Mikleo’s back straightened. Something warm and happy and a little bit like honored pride slid through him as he held out his hand. “Can I see it?”

Sorey made a suddenly uncertain and strangled sound. His shoulders curled in. “Wait, uh. I’m not so sure anymore.” 

“It’s for _me_ , isn’t it?”

“Well, yeah, but…”

“Then it’s fine,” Mikleo murmured around his smile. He bobbed his hand between them. Sorey’s eyes darted from the open palm, to Mikleo’s eyes, and then back to his hand.

Sorey made one more hesitant sound. Then, he nodded. “Okay. But you’ve gotta close your eyes!”

Mikleo fought the urge to roll his eyes, but he decided to humor his friend. He gently pressed his eyes closed and left his hand in midair. It took a moment for Sorey to reach forward, letting his clumsy carving dangle just above the center of his friend’s palm. Then, with a gasp, Sorey quickly thought better of it.

“Wait!” he said. He shuffled around the ice.

Mikleo raised an eyebrow. He almost opened an eye and would have, if Sorey hadn’t quickly ushered, “No! No! Keep your eyes closed!” 

“Sorey?” he asked around a breathless laugh. “Now I’m just nervous.”

Sorey didn’t answer. He slipped off his other mitten still on his right hand and stuffed both of them now into his pockets. Now bare, his fingers shivered in the bitter cold as they stretched out the ribbon and dangled it in front of Mikleo’s neck. He took a deep breath and then wrapped the necklace around him.

Mikleo gasped. His eyes shot open. “Sorey!”

Sorey’s chilled fingers fumbled to tie the ribbon ends quickly. “Gimme a second!” he urged.

Mikleo raised a hand to the pendant. It was so very hard not to move until Sorey was finished tying. “You idiot! Now I can’t actually see it!” he huffed, his own pale face tinged red.

Sorey clasped both hands behind his back. He stepped back as Mikleo spun around and his shoulders bunched up into a sheepish shrug. “So? Maybe that’s a good thing!”

Mikleo heaved out a sigh. “Aren’t I the person you’re giving it to?”

“Well, yeah _,_ but--”

“--and if _I’m_ the one who’s wearing it, shouldn’t _I_ get the chance to see it before I actually decide if I want to wear it?”

Sorey’s eyes darted away briefly. “If, uh, it helps, I think it looks good on you,” he offered.

“You’re hardly even _looking_ at me,” Mikleo mumbled. He frowned, craning his head down while lifting the round pendant with his fingers. He tried his hardest to see the beach oval necklace Sorey had made for him, but no matter how hard he strained his neck, he couldn’t get a decent glimpse of it. He let the pendant fall back against the base of his throat with a sigh.

Sorey flushed again. This time, his eyes did not remove themselves from Mikleo’s face, though he kept glancing every stray moment to the necklace that now donned his best friend’s neck. He could see the stone peeking out from the furred lining of his hood; it filled him with a soft thrill of pride. “Sorry.”

Mikleo’s eyes fluttered to Sorey. He always had to do a double-take when he heard Sorey apologize; the other boy had such a strange way of pronouncing it. “…why’d you make me one?” he asked quietly.

“You don’t know?” Sorey asked, and his voice was so sincere and honest, Mikleo found himself blinking in return. 

“No,” the waterbender murmured. “Should I?”

“I mean,” Sorey began and he shrugged for a third time, “I just thought it’d be obvious. I’ve told you I think I want to be friends with you forever, right?”

A small smile pulled at Mikleo’s face. He could feel any tension still present in his shoulders start to ebb. “Yeah.”

“Well, this kinda shows I mean it.” Sorey lifted a bare hand to scratch at his cheek. His green eyes turned to the side. “‘I want to be with you forever.’ So...now you know and you won’t forget. And it’ll always be with you wherever you go.”

“If I don’t take it off, you mean,” Mikleo said quietly. A warm feeling floated high in his chest. 

“I…I sure hope you don’t,” Sorey murmured and lifted his eyes.

Mikleo’s smile widened. 

* * *

Red dotted the snow. 

Tiny pools of crimson, speckling like dark beads against the white. It spilled down Mikleo’s tight lips as the boy pushed himself upright. A hand left the snow to cup a mitten around his nose; it did little to staunch the molasses drip of blood down his chin. 

“Whoa! Ed! What did you _do_?”

“Y-yeah! Ed, you took it a little far…”

“Shut up, Cynthia! That shows him what we think of him hanging out so much with those Fire Nation guys, anyway!” 

Ed threw out a hand. His back was turned. The fur of his coat hood bristled in the arctic wind.

Sorey did not, could not, recognize the heat in his chest for the anger it was. There was something hot, hot, hot and bursting that was building within.

“What’s that dumb necklace supposed to be, anyway? An egg?”

Mikleo’s face twisted. Before Sorey could do anything, he spit on Ed’s sealskin shoes.

Ed snapped.

“Stop!” Cynthia cried, she didn’t know whether to reach out or keep her mittened hands close to her chest. Both her and the other children’s eyes were wide as Ed grabbed Mikleo’s ankle and _yanked_ him across the snow until he was towering over him. Ed’s hand reared back for another punch.

Mikleo’s wrists snapped up to cross over his face.

Then the fire had a voice.

“ _Don’t hurt him!”_

Ed shouted in surprise and fell back at the roar of fire that burst out of the lantern, stretching up to be nearly as tall as Sorey. Glass shards littered the snow, burst out of their metal bracings. The iron framework distorted, the circular handle twisting under the heat.

All of the children stared at him. Even Mikleo. 

“W-what?” Ed gasped, but Cynthia was already there at his shoulder, pulling him away as the other children turned tail for the protective walls of the village. “The twerp can firebend?”

“Run!” she urged. “C’mon, Ed! You’ve gotta get out of here!’

Ed did not need to be told twice.

In the sharp and startling quiet afterward, the pillar of fire still rising from the lantern dimmed and ebbed. Sorey looked to Mikleo. Mikleo looked back. Sorey’s eyes darted down to the line of red leading down his friend’s chin. Feeling came back to his fingers, first. Shock and horror followed soon after, landing heavily in his stomach.

“Mikleo, are you okay?”

Mikleo sniffed. He blinked hard, or maybe it was a wince. “My nose hurts.”

“Yeah,” Sorey breathed and dipped his booted toes forward into the snow. He aborted the step before he even took it. “Um. I’ll get Gra--I mean, your mom, and she can--”

“--Sorey, I’m still not afraid of you.”

Sorey paused. Slowly, a smile broke out. “Right,” he said and scurried to Mikleo’s side. 

Mikleo took his extended hand and slowly rose to his feet. When he wobbled, Sorey steadied him with both hands--incredibly warm somehow, enough to feel through his mittens and the lining of Mikleo’s coat--pressed to Mikleo’s arms. 

His hand was even warmer when he took Mikleo’s own. 

“That fire trick of yours was pretty cool, though,” Mikleo murmured with a laugh, hoping it hid the redness he was sure was crawling across his cheeks. He couldn’t stop smiling for some dumb, dopey reason, even with blood dripping down his face. “I thought you said you couldn’t bend?”

“I can’t.” Sorey shrugged and shook his head. He paused. “I mean, I guess I thought I couldn’t.”

“You’ve never done that before?”

“N-no.”

The two shared a look. Forest green met amaranthine and in that exchange, wonder and excitement budded. 

“Gramps,” Sorey finally said as if waking up from a deep sleep.

“Yeah,” Mikleo breathed. 

They hurried towards the tent camped on the outside of the village walls. The broken, warped remains of Sorey’s lantern sat forgotten in the snow behind them.

**Author's Note:**

> SO MY AMAZING FRIEND OLLIE REQ’D “Dragged by the Ankle” W/ MIKLEO AND ORIGINALLY I wasn’t thinking to do something to fulfill it from my AtlA AU...which is clearly where I went wrong because as soon as I thought about Mikleo from AtlA AU I got Inspired and figured out Exactly What To Do, as I had most of this already written in my huge master doc of Zesty AtlA AU
> 
> unfortunately, the actual moment Mikleo gets dragged by his ankle is pretty short but uh he still doesn’t have the best of times. we know what we're about here
> 
> if you like what you see and would like to request your own "bad things happen" bingo prompt fulfilled, [check out the prompts](https://somefinelipstickonthatpig.tumblr.com/post/615320414634295296/rated-g-fandom-tales-of-zestiria-prompt) I still have available!! i've got about six left 
> 
> thanks for reading!


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